Imatges de pàgina
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Inftructs you how to adore the heavens, and bows

you

To morning's holy office. Cymbeline, A. 3, S. 3,
This morning, like the spirit of a youth
That means to be of note, begins by times.

Antony and Cleopatra, A. 4, S. 4,

The grey-ey'd morn fmiles on the frowning night Checkering the eastern clouds with ftreaks of light; And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels

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From forth day's path-way, made by Titan's Romeo and Juliet, A. 2, S. 3.

wheels.

See, how the morning opes her golden gates,
And takes her farewell of the glorious fun!
How well refembles it the prime of youth,
Trimm'd like a yonker, prancing to his love!

Henry VI. P. 3, A. 2, S. 1.

MOT H E R.

-Who might be your mother,

2 That you infult, exult, and all at once,

Over the wretched?

As you like it, A. 3, S. 5.

MURDER,

And flecked darkness.] Flecked is fpotted, dappled, streaked. Lord Surrey uses the word in his tranflation of the 4th Eneid. "Her quivering cheeks flecked with deadly stain."

went off

STEEVENS. "Flecked" is undoubtedly fpotted. But flecked, in this place, fhould be flick'ring, i. e. fluttering. Darkness, or night, is always reprefented with wings. To fay, therefore, that night flowly ("flickering"), or hefitatingly, like a drunkard, is beautiful, and perfectly juft. The text is certainly faulty, for if flecked, or spotted darkness, be likened to a reeling man, where is the truth of the comparison?

A. B.

2 That you infult, exult, and all at once:] By examining the crime of the perfon accufed, we fhall difcover that the line is to

be read thus:

"That you infult, exult, and rail at once." But the Oxford editor improves it, and for rail at once, reads do

mincer

WARBURTON.
There

MURDER, MURDERER.

Within this bofom never enter'd yet

my

form;

The dreadful motion of a murd'rous thought,
And you have flander'd nature in
Which, howfoever rude exteriorly,
Is yet the cover of a fairer mind
Than to be butcher of an innocent child.

King John, A. 4, S. 2. O God, which this blood mad'ft, revenge his death! O earth, which this blood drink'ft, revenge his death! Either, heaven, with lightning ftrike the murderer dead,

Or, earth, gape open wide, and eat him quick.

Richard III. A. 1, S. 2.

The great King of kings

Hath in the table of his law commanded,

That thou fhalt do no murder; wilt thou then

Spurn at his edict, and fulfil a man's?

Richard III. A. 1, S. 4.

Perjury, perjury, in the highest degree,
Murder, ftern murder, in the dir❜ft degree;
All feveral fins, all us'd in each degree,
Throng to the bar,

Methought the fouls of all that I had murder'd
Came to my tent, and every one did threat
To-morrow's vengeance on the head of Richard.

Richard III. A. 5, S. 3.

I'll have these players

Play fomething like the murder of my father,
Before mine uncle: I'll obferve his looks;

There is no neceffity for introducing "rail," and which is befide included in the word infult. We have only to make a transpofition of the words:

"That you at once infult, exult,—and all,
"Over the wretched."

i, e. and that too over the wretched.

U 4

A. B.

I'll

I'll tent him to the quick; if he do blench,
I know my course.

Hamlet, A. 2, S. 2.

I have heard,

That guilty creatures, fitting at a play,
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been ftruck fo to the foul, that presently
They have proclaim'd their malefactions:

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With moft miraculous organ.

Hamlet, A. 2, S. 2.

It cannot be, but thou haft murder'd him;

So fhould a murderer look, fo dead, fo grim.

Midfummer Night's Dream, A. 3, S. 2.
O, what form of prayer

Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder!
That cannot be: fince I am ftill poffefs'd
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.

Hamlet, A. 3, S. 3.

A murderer, and a villain: a vice of kings:
A cut-purfe of the empire and the rule;
That from a fhelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!

Hamlet, A. 3, S. 4.

This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna: 'tis a knavish piece of work: but what of that? your majefty, and we that have free fouls, it toucheth us not: let the gall'd jade wince, our withers are unHamlet, A. 3, S. 2.

wrung.

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Where should this mufick be? i' the air, or the earth?

This mufick crept by me upon the waters;

Allaying both their fury, and my paffion,

With its fweet air.

Tempest, A. 1, S. 2.

Tempeft, A. 1, S. 2.

Give

Give me fome musick; mufick, moody food
Of us that trade in love.

· Antony and Cleopatra, A. 2, S. 5.
If mufick be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that furfeiting,
The appetite may ficken, and fo die.

Twelfth Night, A. 1, S. 1.

Except I be by Silvia in the night,
There is no mufick in the nightingale.

Two Gentlemen of Verona, A. 3, S. I.

Prepofterous afs! that never read fo far
To know the caufe why mufick was ordain'd!
Was it not, to refresh the mind of man,
After his studies, or his ufual pain ?

Taming of the Shrew, A. 3, S. 1.

The poet

Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, ftones, and floods,
Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage,
But mufick for the time doth change his nature.

Merchant of Venice, A. 5, S. 1.

How fweet the moon-light fleeps upon this bank!
Here will we fit, and let the founds of mufick
Creep in our ears. Merchant of Venice, A. 5, S. 1.
Come, ho, and wake Diana with a hymn;
With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear,

And draw her home with mufick.

Merchant of Venice, A. 5, S. 1.

I am never merry, when I hear sweet musick.

Merchant of Venice, A. 5, S. 1.

He may win:

And what is mufick then? then mufick is

Even as the flourish when true fubjects bow
To a new-crowned monarch.

Merchant of Venice, A. 3, S. 2.

The man that hath no mufick in himself,
Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,

Is fit for treasons, ftratagems, and fpoils;
Let no fuch man be trufted.

Merchant of Venice, A. 5, S. 1. Let mufick found, while he doth make his choice, Then if he lofe, he makes a swan-like end, Fading in mufick. Merchant of Venice, A. 3, S. 2. There is much mufic, excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot you make it speak. Why, do you think, that I am easier to be play'd on than a pipe? Call me what inftrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.

Hamlet, A. 3, S. 2.

Let there be no noife made, my gentle friends,

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' Unless fome dull and favourable hand.

Will whisper mufick to my weary fpirit.

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Henry IV. P. 2, A. 4, S. 4.

MYSTERY.

Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! you would play upon me; you would feem to know my ftops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would found me from my loweft note to the top of my compafs.

Hamlet, A. 3, S. 2.

Unless fome dull and favourable band.] Thus the old editions read it, evidently corrupt. Shakespeare feems to have wrote, "Unless fome doleing favourable hand." deleing, i. e. a hand ufing foft melancholy airs. WARBURTON. I rather think that dull fignifies melancholy, gentle, foothing. JOHNSON.

"Dull and favourable hand." The terms dull and favourable are too much opposed to be right. Shakespeare may have Anglicifed the word dolce, and written,

"Unless fome dolce and favourable hand." dolce, i. e. foft, footbing.

The Italian expreffion, con dolce maniera, fignifies, to play in a foft and agreeable manner.

A. B.

NAIAD.

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